Following a judge’s order, a Virginia hospital late Monday allowed a covid-19 patient in its care to receive ivermectin, a drug normally used as an antiparasitic that health officials say should not be used to treat the novel coronavirus.

       FAQ: What to know about the omicron variant of the coronavirus ArrowRight

       Fauquier Health, a 97-bed hospital in Warrenton, initially refused to let an outside doctor inject Kathleen Davies with ivermectin, despite a request from her family, the Fauquier Times reported. Davies has been on a ventilator since early November. This month, her family asked a court to compel the hospital to allow doctors to treat her with ivermectin.

       The hospital had argued that the outside physician offering to administer ivermectin to Davies was not qualified to care for patients in an ICU setting and that its own physicians had refused to prescribe the drug. However, the court sided with the family and said the hospital cannot stop a patient from using ivermectin to fight covid-19.

       Advertisement

       Story continues below advertisement

       Christopher Davies, Kathleen Davies’s son, told the Fauquier Times that he doesn’t know whether the drug will help his mother, calling it a “Hail Mary” attempt to save her. “She’s on her death bed. Any kind of negative repercussions are null and void.”

       Following the court ruling, Fauquier Health said in a statement to media outlets that it had “worked around the clock to cooperate with the patient’s family” and had transferred “the patient’s care to their preferred physician.”

       The Davies family is among a handful of people to have turned to the drug out of desperation and not because of an unsubstantiated belief spreading in conservative circles that the deworming drug is an alternative for existing treatments. The Food and Drug Administration has advised strongly against using the drug for covid-19, saying it is designed to kill parasites in humans and livestock.

       Elevated by social media and right-wing pundits and politicians, the drug is not recommended by either the FDA or its manufacturer to treat covid-19. (Joshua Carroll/The Washington Post)

       Earlier this year, before vaccine shots were widely and easily accessible to the public, a judge in New York State said a hospital should let an 80-year-old covid patient be treated with ivermectin, the Buffalo News reported. The patient, who had been on a ventilator and “literally on her death bed,” recovered, the family of the patient said.

       Advertisement

       Story continues below advertisement

       Doctors at the time warned that this did not justify using ivermectin for covid-19. While “there are some indications that this drug may have some merit in treating covid-19 … we don’t have definitive data yet to show it does help. Presently, it is not recommended as a treatment for Covid-19,” said Thomas A. Russo, an expert on infectious diseases, according to the Buffalo News.

       On Sunday, a 52-year-old man died after being diagnosed with covid-19 last month, the York Daily Record reported. His wife had successfully sued a hospital to let an independent medical expert inject her husband with ivermectin early this month. He had received two doses before his death, as a last-ditch effort to save his life.

       Last month, a Texas court ruled against a woman seeking legal approval to force a hospital to let her husband be treated with ivermectin, despite acknowledging her “desire to try anything and everything” to save her spouse and her “understandably desperate” state of mind. Also in November, a Florida teacher died of covid-19 after her husband had unsuccessfully sued a hospital to treat her wife with ivermectin, the Associated Press reported.

       Doctors dismayed by patients who fear coronavirus vaccines but clamor for unproven ivermectin

       Health officials have not authorized ivermectin as a treatment for covid-19. “Taking large doses of ivermectin is dangerous,” the FDA has said.

       Advertisement

       Story continues below advertisement

       “There’s a lot of misinformation around, and you may have heard it’s okay to take large doses of ivermectin. It is not okay,” the agency said. If people overdose on ivermectin, it can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, low blood pressure, itching and hives, dizziness, ataxia, seizures, coma, and even death, it added. “If your health care provider writes you an ivermectin prescription, fill it through a legitimate source such as a pharmacy, and take it exactly as prescribed.”